Star Crazy Me Read Free Page A

stars?”
    Josh said yes, stars would do fine.
    Indy beamed. “Stars for a star! Cos that’s what she’s going to be.”
    â€œI dunno.” I shook my head. “It’s all very well getting stuff to wear, but what am I gonna sing?”
    â€œWe’ll work on it,” said Josh. “Maybe write something special.”
    Yesss! I felt like flying at him and hugging him, only he’d probably just have got embarrassed. But I was really excited by the idea. A song written specially for the occasion! It might even gain me some extra points.
    As soon as I got home, Mum demanded to know what I’d bought. “Put it on, so I can see!”
    I was a bit wary, cos Mum is just, like, so critical, but I could tell at once that she approved.
    â€œWonderful,” she said, “to have a boyfriend who can choose clothes for you!”
    I have told Mum so many times that Josh is not my boyfriend . He is just a friend who happens to be a boy. Mum doesn’t believe that is possible. She once said so in front of Nan. She said, “You can’t have a boy as a friend . Not just an ordinary friend .” Then she laughed and said, “Well, I never could.”
    Nan, quick as a flash, said, “No, and look what happened to you!” Nan could be quite sharp, and she always, always defended me. I do miss her loads. She used to tell Mum to leave me alone, especially when Mum nagged at me about my weight, or said if Josh wasn’t my boyfriend then wasn’t it about time I got one?
    I’ve had boyfriends! Two, in fact. One was Sam Wyman that lives in our block, and the other was Judd Priestley at juniors. They were both unimaginably boring . You couldn’t ever talk to them like I can with Josh. When I said this to Mum she raised both eyebrows and said, “Who wants a boyfriend for talking to?”
    I said, “I do!” To which Mum retorted that I would “sing a different tune one of these days”. Well, pardon me, but I don’t think so!
    Next weekend, I got together with Josh and wewrote a song for me to sing in the talent contest. We’ve been writing songs for ever. We started back in Year 7, and we’re still doing it. We work really well together. Sometimes we argue, but we never fall out. We tend to bounce ideas off each other, like Josh will say, “How about this?” and I’ll say, “Or maybe this?” and that will set us off and get us all inspired in a way that I don’t think would happen if we were doing it separately. We work out the music together, too. I play the guitar – well, just chords mainly, on account of being self-taught – but Josh is like a demon on the keyboard and the drums. He knows about music because his mum and dad are musicians. His dad is a violinist and plays in an orchestra, his mum teaches at a local school. Josh always claims not to be musical – he says I am far more musical than he is – but he knows things that I don’t, so I’ll, like, sing a phrase and Josh will pick it up and run with it. Between us, we’re an ace team!
    This is the song that we wrote:

    .
    Star crazy me
    Floatin’ free - ee - ee
    Into the ether of
    Eternity

    Now do you see me
    Ridin’ high
    Ridin’ high
    Streamers of song
    â€™Cross the sky - y - y

    Nobody nothing
    Ain’t gonna stop
    This crazy crazy crazy gal
    This crazy gal
    Will reach the top
    Oh yeah
    Oh yeah

    Just watch me, babe
    I’m floatin’ free
    I’m flyin’ high - igh - igh

    Gonna get there
    Gonna be
    Up there for all eternity
    Oh yeah
    Oh yeah

    Star crazy me
    I’m floatin’ free
    I said to Josh that we should both enter the contest, me as vocalist, him on the keyboard, but he wouldn’t. He said, “Don’t bully me! You’re always bullying me.”
    I said, “Me bully you? That’s a joke!”
    If either of us gets to be bullied, I’d say that it was me. Josh